Vacationers who use only a single car and trailer or truck to transport themselves and their equipment to their destination are frequently forced to limit the amount of equipment they take with them due to the space limitations of the trailer or truck bed. This problem is particularly severe where the equipment to be transported includes large, bulky items such as boats, personal watercraft, all-terrain vehicles or other recreational vehicles. One way to increase the storage space available is to add a vehicular deck onto an existing trailer or truck bed so that both the space above the trailer deck or truck bed and below the vehicular deck, and the space above the vehicular deck, can be used to transport bulky items of equipment.
There have been several attempts to devise vehicular decks to address the aforementioned problems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,814 (Cates) discloses a boat and car trailer in which a boat is supported on a secondary loading platform while a car is supported on a primary platform. The secondary loading platform is supported above the primary platform by legs. Each leg is connected to a bottom pivot by a right-angle bottom projection that extends rearward at the bottom end of such leg, and to a top pivot by a right-angle top projection that extends forward at the top end of such leg. These right-angle projections are configured such that when the legs are extending perpendicularly between the secondary loading platform and the primary platform, each of the projections is flush against one of the platforms, thereby preventing the legs from pivoting such that the secondary loading platform moves forward relative to the primary platform. However, the projections do not prevent pivoting in the reverse direction; the secondary loading platform can pivot rearwardly relative to the primary platform. Instead, the support legs are pivotally mounted to the boat trailer frame at their bottom ends and the upper support members at their top ends such that the upper support members can be lowered rearwardly by pivoting the support legs rearwardly about their pivotal mounts on the trailer. The secondary loading platform is lowered to permit unloading or loading.
The rearward pivoting of the legs to lower the secondary loading platform of U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,814 is typical of many of the prior art vehicular decks. In particular, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,468,115 (Alvis) and 4,469,346 (Low) disclose these rearwardly pivoting support legs. Some disadvantages arise from this reliance on rearward pivoting to permit loading and unloading of the vehicular deck.
Generally, the vehicular deck should be built to be strong enough to support the weight of the cargo placed on the vehicular deck as well as the moments generated by the acceleration of the transport vehicle. Generally, the support legs will be in a better position to withstand these moments if they are rigidly mounted to the trailer or truck bed at their bottom ends, and to the auxiliary support platform at their upper ends. With the aforementioned vehicular decks, it will be necessary to provide a detachable brace, or some other component having an equivalent function, to impede unwanted rearward pivoting of the legs. This detachable brace must be removable to permit rearward pivoting of the legs when the auxiliary platform is to be lowered. The need for this additional component may increase both the manufacturing expense and weight of the vehicular deck, and may also add to the time required to load and unload the vehicular deck.